Arthur attended Dr Arthur B. Evans's school in Market Bosworth for almost six years, starting at the age of 10 and seeing his parents and siblings only when they visited England, so he looked upon Emma and Sebastian Evans more as sister and brother than cousins. When 15 years old, he spent a year at Dr Bridgman's Academy, Woolwich, preparing for a career in the British East India Company's army. He went straight from there, in December 1853, just 16, to Bombay. He passed further examinations in Indian languages, surveying and civil engineering, serving in the Public Works department and the Commissariat, among various other appointments. During a period of leave in 1866, he paid a visit to his sister, Harriet in Natal. He married his second cousin, Caroline Peyton in Bombay, 19 February 1868 and soon after was posted to Aden where his first two sons were born. He rose to be a General, retiring (with the rank of Lieutenant General) to Birmingham in the 1890s. He took up a number of interests, principally the anti-vaccination movement and was also a vegetarian. He died in Birmingham aged 82 and his body was cremated, a procedure for which he was an early advocate.

Back